The Ramsey Show - App - Introducing the Newest Ramsey Personality! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 10, 2020

Dr. John Delony, Retirement, Insurance, Savings Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Danielle is with us in Pennsylvania. Hi, Danielle. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So, I have a 10-month-old, and we thought, what the heck, let's sign him up for modeling and acting or whatever in New York. We currently live in Pennsylvania, and I thought he might make a couple hundred, you know, like just on a couple things, but he's actually making

a pretty decent amount, which I'm very thankful for. Now it's a couple thousand, you know, like just on a couple things. But he's actually making a pretty decent amount, which I'm very thankful for. Now it's a couple thousand, and he's not even a year old. And so I really want to be doing something smart with that money, but I really have no idea where to put it or what to do. I don't want to use it for our own bills just because I feel guilty doing that. But, I mean, the trust account that they make you set up, you have to keep 15%. But I kind of want to do something with the rest to help him in the future. But who makes you set up?

The state of New York, for child performers, you have to have a Cujun account, it's called. It's a law that you just have to have a trust account made for him so that parents can't take their kids' earnings. Oh. And how much money is this, a couple thousand dollars? Yeah, he's only had a couple gigs so far since we started, and he's already made about $4,000. Okay, great.

I would just put it in a 529 and some mutual funds for his college. So mutual funds you would think would be good? Oh, definitely. He's a baby. He's got 20 years before he's going to need the money, and I would invest it for his college. Okay. I just didn't know if I should keep any in the actual savings account.

I know it doesn't accumulate that way. For what? It's not like he needs an emergency fund.'t need an emergency fund he's got a mother you got it i think you got him covered right i hope you're taking care of him yeah no and we're trying to get our financial situation fixed through um everything that you teach so we'll be in a good spot in a couple of years. I think this will just help you kind of skip baby step five is what it amounts to when you do get up there because you're not going to use this money for you, and you shouldn't, I agree, and you can't anyway.

It's going through a trust account. And so I would just dump it into mutual funds and a 529 for his college, sit down with SmartVest investor pro and pick out some. And, I mean, you could put, you know, up to $15,000 or $20,000 in that and not be worried about it. And it'll grow completely tax-free. If you get much more than that, I might not put it in a 529, but I would put it in mutual funds.

Because then it's going to be more than enough for his college. It will have taken care of, at his young age especially. So obviously a cute kid. Congratulations. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Alex is with us. Alex is in Delaware. Hi, Alex, how are you?

Hey, Dave, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Listen, I love what you're saying, Ford. I love your plan. I started it January of last year. I've already paid $72,000.

Good. And the last $5,000 I'll finish, fair enough, at the end of this month. Good for you. In April and May, I plan on – that should set me up with the emergency fund. And then what I plan to do, I want to see your take on it, was I'm so used to paying things and seeing my balances, it really kind of motivates me. And I think what I want to do is I want to do 8%,

kind of lighten up a little bit on the retirement planning and try to finish up the house. I have $106,000 left, which I think I can finish by December of next year. What's your household income? It's about $200,000. Okay. No way I'd do that. 15% of your income into retirement,

and you're not going to make it by December of this year, but you're not gonna make it by december of this year but but you're gonna make it by the next december you're gonna have your house paid off really really fast anyway because you're almost there all we're doing is delaying it slightly because we're gonna do a really good job of investing and of course once it's paid off you're gonna max out all retirement right yeah so yeah i would just stay with the baby steps there's no reason not to you're not losing anything you're going to be in debt on the home just a little while longer but not much because you're game on i mean you've been really knocking the crap out of this you've done a great job so don't don't waver now stick with it plow through do the stuff we teach man makes

people millionaires and make some debt free so do So do it. Don't, I mean, don't try to change it. Don't do Ramsey-ish. Do it, man. Stick with it. Thanks for the call. Alicia is with us, and she's in Maryland. Hi, Alicia. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing well, thank you. Good. How can I help? I have a quick question for you. So I'm getting ready to start a new job, and they have really good retirement benefits, but one is a state pension, which you always say no to pensions. And the other is a retirement

plan. It's called an optional retirement plan, but it basically says that it's an annuity. So I'm really confused about which direction to go. They put 7.25 percent in regardless of what i put in into the into the pension um no into the annuity they describe it as a um money purchase plan yeah yeah i i would do roth iras before i did that on the side just individual roth in mutual funds you've got a lot less fees you've got a lot better product that you're putting the money into. And then if you want to do some more, you could do that annuity option. I wouldn't do any money into the pension. They're going to give you the pension anyway, but I wouldn't add to it.

Okay. So that's something they automatically give me? Should be. It should be a state pension for state employees. I don't know Maryland's program, but most every state has a pension plan yeah there is a there is a form to opt out if i want to do the annuity oh if you wanted to do the annuity okay uh you probably do want to do the annuity over the pension but that's just the portion that they're putting in so they'll put in seven and a half percent into one or the other is what you're saying? That's correct. Oh, good.

Take the annuity with a portion of their money, put your money someplace else. Okay. Do you know anything about the TIA versus Fidelity? Both of them, TIA, CREF, and Fidelity both have good options and bad options. So look at the individual options within the plan and look at their track records. I'm looking for a track record of five-year plus, and I'm trying to find a mutual fund that has outperformed the S&P. It's the individual funds within CREF or within Fidelity that you're looking at. Both of them have excellent funds and both of them have dogs.

They got bazillions of funds. So I don't know funds and both of them have dogs. They got bazillions of funds. So I don't know which ones are in front of me. I'll tell you, when you're opening your Roth IRA with your SmartVestor Pro, take them your stuff from the state and they'll help you pick those selection as well. They'll help you analyze those and show you how they're analyzing them. And then they'll assist you in picking for your retirement options at the state. But Fidelity and Cref both do a good job, but every mutual fund company has some good ones and some bad ones. So you're always looking at the individual fund's performance when you're doing the picks. So, good question.

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so fun so we don't have any doctors prior to this in the ramsey personality so you brought the intellect level up considerably of the bunch that's a that's it was a low bar dave we're getting there we're getting there oh my goodness so um before we jump into what you're going to be doing and so forth um let's talk about where you're coming from, what you've been doing in the past, and then we'll talk about where you and I and the team have visualized that you're going to be able to serve people. You bet. with leaders across the country and families and students and their mothers and their dads and their brothers and sisters trying to figure out how to help them be successful, how to help them be whole, how to help them get to tomorrow. So you were dean of students right before you came here at Belmont University.

Yes, sir. But the thing that made this click for you and I and our teams, our leadership team, when we all started talking about the idea of you being a personality was that your academic, I mean, you had a doctorate in higher education, right? Right. But then that led you into coaching folks, I mean, through life's problems. That's right. And so you're talking to moms and dads about their problems, kids about their problems, educators about their problems, and you end up going into counseling. That's right.

So I became just passionate about what were going on in the lives of my students, what were going on in the lives of their families, in the marriages of my friends and my community members. And Dave, I was having my own struggles. I had to get to the bottom of what was going on. So I ended up with another PhD in counseling and really became passionate about helping people get from one dark moment to a moment with a light on, right? To help them go be well. Yeah. So how to deal with the person in the mirror and those around you? Yes, sir. We're just in a moment in history where we don't know how to be in relationship with ourselves, how to be in relationship with those that we love, be with those that we disagree with. We just don't know how to do life anymore, Dave.

It really is. You know, we talk about common sense around here all the time, but common relational sense has gone. Gone. Gone. The social media, the trolls, the avatars have destroyed it. The screens are lighting up our brains in ways they shouldn't be lit up. It's messing up stuff, isn't it? That's right. Yes, sir.

And so, I mean, there's a lot of folk that just don't know how to deal with themselves and don't know how to deal with other people, and they run into relationship issues and they need an answer. That's right. That's right. And here's what's beautiful, though. I've never been more optimistic about a moment in history where people are ready to get well and where people are ready to plug back into who they're designed to be and who they're going to be and the mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters that they're destined to be here. This is a moment where I think that look around at the last few days, the last few weeks, last few months. We are ready to have someone that we can turn and say, what's next? Yeah.

How do I cope with this fear? That's exactly right. How do I not panic? Fear is a commodity now. We trade on it, right? We're selling it. That's the currency of the day. Yeah.

For sure with the networks. That's right. Because they're making a bazillion dollars off of keeping you glued to. Oh, man. And you know what I got to see the other day? So we had the hurricanes, you know, came through. The tornadoes. Yeah, I'm from Houston there, so the hurricanes.

So tornadoes here in Nashville. And I took my little boy out there, and I wanted him to see something. Not only wanted him to see the devastation of the tornado, there were people everywhere with food and chainsaws and kindness and gloves on ready to go to work. And, Dave, just a reminder, there's so many good people all across this country who are ready to get reinvested in their lives. But there's something about a disaster like that that makes it simple.

That's right. That's exactly right. You just get the chainsaw and you go. You don't really have to ask permission. You don't have to worry about the toxicity of your employer. You don't have to worry about the passive-aggressive mother-in-law. You just get the chainsaw and you go cut some meat. There's something clear about that.

That's exactly right. We don't have an intellectual luxury there to sit around the table and pontificate on things. There's work to be done. There's people to go help. Yeah, that's exactly right. Move the boards. Get the guy out of his crap in his basement. That's exactly right.

You don't think. You just act. You do. And it's clean. And it comes from here, right? Yeah, it crap in his basement. That's exactly right. I mean, you don't think, you just act. You do. And it's clean. And it comes from here, right? Yeah, it comes from the heart. That's exactly right. Yeah, we've got 80 Ramsey team members out there today on the street.

That's incredible. With a teaming up with Samaritan's Purse. Denise Whittemore, our director of the Ramsey Family Foundation, is guiding that. And we've had Ramsey team members volunteering, and they're doing it on our payroll. That's right. They get days off for ministry, and they're out there volunteering right now. But it's just simple. You put on a t-shirt, and people who don't have a single callus on their hands suddenly are doing labor.

That's exactly right. That's right. They've never seen the stuff they pick up before, and they're getting ready to move it. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Yeah. Very, very cool. So the thing is, you're going to be talking about people's lives have been hijacked. That's a saying you have all the time.

I love that saying because they have. And I kind of deal with the money problems, but I often tell people debt is not the problem. It's the symptom. But really, a lot of the money problems, a lot of calls I get are calls for you. That's right. They're calls for the counselor, Dr. D the coach right that's right and um because they're dealing with really some kind of internal thing inside themselves or some kind of a thing with their husband or my wife I can't you know my husband's disrespecting me

my wife won't listen to me whatever and there's financial infidelity and they're deceiving each other so in all of that is a relationship issue it's not really a money issue you hear me say that like once an hour almost. So you're going to be answering the real questions. That's right. And there's so much noise. There's noise on our phones. There's noise on the news.

There's noise in the workplace. There's noise everywhere on what you should do and how you should do it. And we stop listening to ourselves. And it happened quick, man. It happened over 15, 20 years, right? I mean, it's happened real fast. And so it can stop just as fast as well. Yeah. And I think one of the reasons that you and I and this team were able to align so quickly as

soon as we became friends was we believe that you're not a victim of those things, that you can take control of it. That's right. The beauty is we control our thoughts and we control our actions. And that's it. And if you can take control control our thoughts and we control our actions and that's it and if you can take control of your thoughts and you can take your control of your actions and change your life you can change your life and we just need permission we just need permission to read and control the thoughts in our heads yeah my dad and mom were in the real estate business in the 60s and 70s and they took us to all the positive thinking movement stuff right the sales things and but you know so around our home growing up, I would say, well, you know,

so-and-so made me mad, and he went, no, you just got mad. Nobody makes you mad. We weren't allowed to say that. That's right. You choose to be frustrated. You choose to be mad by the way that person treated you. You could have chose to smile and walk off and go, that's an idiot. That's right.

Instead, you're mad. Here's the thing. I've spent years working in crisis work, behind closed doors in the middle of the night with police officers and broken-hearted families who have just dealt with the darkest of moments right those are real those are real and that's what your community's for i've been trying to come up with a way to to use the snowball effect and your community a group of people great relationships that's your emergency fund for life, right? That's the people that, not if, but when. Somebody in your life is going to get sick.

Somebody in your life is going to have a marriage bump. Somebody in your life is going to have addiction challenges. And that's where your community comes through and helps you. Who's your 2 a.m. friend, a guy said the other day? There you go. That's exactly right. Who's your friend at 2 a.m.? We don't know how to do that anymore.

You know why? Because we have 1,000 friends on the computer, and we have no one to help us move a couch. We don't have anybody at our house anymore. We don't have anybody over, right? We don't have anybody that we're connected with outside of a, hey, how's it going, on the cell phone. That's right. Connected by thumbs. There you go.

And it's not a thumb war. That's exactly right. It is of sorts. And what ends up happening is when folks deal with these situations, they engage in relationships, their life really gets richer. And you're going to coach them on how to actually engage in real relationships. That's exactly right. Facebook friends aren't friends. What do I do next?

No, they're not friends, man. No, they're not friends. We've got more affluence and more stuff, and we've never been so connected, and yet we've never been more alone. And this is our moment, Dave. We are really excited. Dr. John Deloney joining us as our newest Ramsey personality. Going to talk about real life, talk about relational IQ, and you'll be hearing more from him as a guest on this show. And then, hey, who knows?

Someday he'll be taking calls of his own on his own show. Thanks for the ride. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be fun, baby. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun, baby. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. It's going to be fun.

I can tell. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You know, I get lots of questions about ID theft since it's a huge problem. Most people just worry about financial fraud, which is a big mistake. Tax refund fraud, for example, is out of control. Last year, the IRS paid out over $10 billion in fraudulent refunds. Thieves are stealing your refunds. They're also hacking into accounting and tax preparer firms to steal your personal information and use it for all kinds of fraudulent activities that aren't detected by pricey credit monitoring and prevention plans. That's why Zander's ID theft plan is the only one I've ever recommended or used.

They cover all types of ID theft, including tax refund fraud. Plus, they take over the work if you become a victim, protecting your money if you get hacked. They even protect your kids for free on their family plan. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It's just the smartest, most affordable way to go. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Asher and Michaela are with us. Hey, guys, how are you?

Great, how are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you guys live? We live in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Very cool. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free scream.

Yes. How much have you paid off? $116,840. Way to go. And how long did that take? 4.6 years. 4.6 years. Okay, I'll go with that. And your range of income during that time? $115,128. Good. What do you guys do for a living? So I work in the feed manufacturing business. And I work for a nonprofit that does agricultural research, education, and consultation. Very cool. Good for you. What kind of debt was this $117,000?

Everything. We had student loans, cars, credit card. I think that's about it. Kind of normal. Pretty much. Except a lot of normal. Right. Yeah. Wow. So what Pretty much. Except a lot of normal. Right. Yeah.

Wow. So what happened 4.6 years ago? So we had just moved from Denver, Colorado to Lubbock, Texas, and we were coming up on our first anniversary of being married, and we were like, something's got to change. And so we did a Financial Peace University class and started the steps there. And then two years after that, I actually came to work on the Smart Dollar team here at Ramsey Solutions. And we've just been hitting it ever since. So you are obviously one of our team members.

That's how you got started. That's not how you got started, but you completed it here, working on the Smart Dollar team. So very, very cool. So wait a minute. I was on the Smart Dollar team. And then he got a new job. And I know. We've done a lot of moving in the past four years.

I'm so confused. Okay. So you do live in Ardmore, Oklahoma. We do now. Because I knew I didn't have any employees in Ardmore, Oklahoma. My head was starting to come unscrewed. Okay. All right.

Good deal. I don't know team members there, current team members, but former team members. So I knew I knew your face when you walked up here. I'm like, and then I was so confused. Okay. Good. Good. Okay.

So you were here for a while on the Smart Dollar team, and that kept you going or got you going again. Yes. After Financial Peace University. Yes, it kept us going. We had definitely more encouragement while we were here, and so we stepped it up. But then we also found out that i was pregnant with our twin girls so we kind of had to pause a little bit again yeah so yeah and of course he got the job in oklahoma and drug you away from us exactly yeah i see how this works okay

i got it all right cool very cool but you got you know when you're here you got positive peer pressure because a lot you know there's uh everybody here is either out of debt or working their way out and sharing each other on. You know, it's part of our culture here. Definitely. It's not like required, but everybody just does it. You know, we hire smart people, so that's the way it works. But very, very good stuff, guys. Congratulations.

Thank you. So who were your biggest cheerleaders through this four years? You had some cheerleaders when you worked here, but who else? Definitely each other. We hold each other accountable when we do the budget meetings and things like that. So definitely that. A little bit of our family, but mostly each other. So the financial peace class you took was in your church at the time in Lubbock.

Okay. Very cool. Very cool. So this is like a three-city, 4.6-year thing that happened. And it really started in Denver right before we moved to Lubbock. I mean, we made a fairly good income, and I was just like, what do we have to show for it? We didn't have anything.

So she told me about you. We've made a couple trips from Denver back to Texas while we're getting married, and I'd always listen to your radio station. Twelve hours straight. Yeah. Kicked me, and as soon as I started listening, I told her we station. 12 hours straight. Yeah. Kicked me in. And as soon as I started listening, I told her we've got to do this. Okay.

So then when the church had FPU, it was just a no-brainer. Right. Yeah. Okay. I got you. I'll see the story unravel. Good. Good, good, good.

Good job, guys. Thank you. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. Very well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You paid off $117,000. Mainly sticking to the budget. That's really it yeah it it really held us accountable for what we were doing we'd sit down and look at that budget and

say you know we're not doing well in this category or we need to do better so yeah good very cool good for you guys good job good job well your uh old team members are all gathered around you got a big group of them here to cheer you on and just to remind you how it was when you were here and also because they're so proud of you. So very, very well done. Well, and we have some back at my work. My company has Smart Dollar. Oh, it just keeps on going.

Yeah, it keeps going. They didn't have a choice. Right. And so I'm a co-leader there. And so I really help my coworkers with starting the plan or, you know, getting hooked on the baby steps or answering questions throughout the day. And then we're also going to be doing our sixth lesson of financial peace class that we're leading tomorrow. At your church. Yes. So it's everywhere.

Yes. I love it. Well, thank you. Thank you for the help and making sure that your company has a smart dollar program and your church has Financial Peace University. It's all good. Yes. Very fun stuff.

So did you bring the babies with you? We did. And what are their names? Hadley and Hayes. And they're how old now? Two. Two years old. Yes.

Awesome. Oh, how cute. Come here, Greg. That's fun. Very cool. Come here. Now, are they ready to scream? Do we need to? We'll see. We don't want to scare them. We don't want to scare them. Very cool. Come here. Now, are they ready to scream? Do we need to?

We'll see. We don't want to scare them. We don't want to scare them. All right. 117,000 paid off in 4.6 years, making 115 to 128,500. Three cities and two babies later, they are completely debt-free. Asher, Michaela, Hadley, and Hayes, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream Asher, Michaela, Hadley, and Hayes, count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yay! Yay! Oh, how fun! Way to go, you guys. Well, of course, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires book for you, number one bestseller, and that's where you're headed next.

Your next chapter is to be millionaires. So well done. Very well done. Amazing stuff. That's what the Smart Dollar Program that she used to work in that department is all about. If you pay attention to your business owners and HR folks, listen up. There's a lot of phony financial wellness products out there trying to sell your team a bunch of junk, like payday advances, loan refinancing.

There are wolves out there in sheep's clothing. SmartDollar is our program that is real financial wellness. You actually help your team. Her church had Financial Peace University. She sold Smart Dollar. She saw how Smart Dollar works, how that program works, and got it for her new company when they made the move to Oklahoma. That's how it works. 60% of Americans are stressed about money. That stress follows them to work, and it costs your business money. If you're an HR director, you're a business owner, you're a decision maker, you're a CFO, you know what financial stress costs your company and productivity.

And it's enough. Enough's enough. It's actually a good investment that you get a return on investment and increased productivity, people focusing on the job, they're safer, they're kinder, they're less stressed, all that kind of stuff. SmartDollar, the financial wellness program. Check it out, smartdollar.com, and we'll get you set up and get you some help there. Good stuff. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. You guys jump in, and we'll talk this through together. Karen is on Facebook. I am a 35-year-old female and need $500,000 in term life insurance. Should I purchase a 10-year policy so that when I renew the premium, so the premium would be lower or purchase a 20-year and risk higher premiums upon renewal at 55. I always recommend a 15- or a 20-year policy,

and that is not based on worrying about renewal premiums. It is based on how long you're going to need the insurance. If you're 35 years old and you have a two-year-old, in 20 years they'll be 22 and can make it on their own if something happened to you. If you're 35 years old and you have a 10-year-old, in 15 years they'll be 25 and can make it on their own. So what are the ages of your kids is one of the things you look at. Are they going to be at the end of the policy upon renewal time? Are they going to be grown and gone?

That's what you're aiming at. And so that 15 to 20 years will catch that every time. And the difference in a 15 and a 10 is not worth messing with. I'd do a 15. You're going to go down shorter. And so just look at it that way, and you'll be fine. And go to ZanderInsurance.com and get a quick, easy quote. They'll shop a gazillion different companies and get you the best buy possible.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk. Mike is on the line in Florida. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? is my wife and I are struggling a little bit with some ratios of investing and enjoying our money. We're both 36 years old, and I feel like we may need to catch up a little bit with retirement. And we're on baby steps, 3B, 4, and 5 at the same time. We're in a situation where I bring home $8,600 a month right now. In the next couple of months, that'll increase

to about $10,000 a month. And for the next couple of years, we live rent-free. So that's the 3B. And we've only got $30,000 in retirement and about $15,000 in a mutual fund that we've put money into to save for a house, which we won't actually purchase for eight, nine years. And so I think with some recent increases in salary, we're just struggling a little bit on, you know, is there more than 15% maybe that we should be putting into retirement to kind of catch up with that? Because we started that just in the last couple of years um and then really enjoying money we i think i personally just struggle a little bit with

the ratios on that so i'm just wondering if you have some advice for that um no i wouldn't change it i'd put 15 in um you don't think that's enough and she thinks it's plenty and would rather actually have a life. Okay, that's fair. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. I think it's looking at how much to put in the house fund versus retirement. So if you put 15% of your income away and you guys start setting some lifestyle goals beyond that and beyond those lifestyle goals beyond that, and beyond those lifestyle goals, you continue to fund your house fund,

you're going to be able to pay cash for a home out of that mutual fund when you get there, and you're going to be millionaires. I mean, put 15% in a financial calculator of $125,000 or $140,000 if you're getting home with $10,000, right? Right. So 15%. Put that into a financial calculator in mutual funds, and mutual fund rates of return 10% to 12%, and let's look and see what kind of nest egg you're going to have if that's all you do.

By the way, that's not going to be all you do. Once your home is funded and paid off, you're going to invest more. Oh, and by the way, you're probably going to be making more 20 years from now, 15 years from now. And so you'll be investing even more then. But you'll be easily millionaires, multimillionaires, saving 15% of your income from 36 to 60. Just put it in the calculator. It'll come out. You'll see it.

I mean, it absolutely will. You're it in the calculator. It'll come out. You'll see it. I mean, it's just, it's, it absolutely will. You're going to be fine. But I'm not suggesting it's only going to be that because your life is not going to be that clean and you're going to make more money and you're going to have different goals and you're going to set, you're going to stop setting money aside for the house once you have that adequately funded, meaning effectively a paid cash for your house or paid off your house effectively that that your Baby Step 3B is really your Baby Step 6 in advance, isn't it? Right. That's exactly right.

Yeah. And that's kind of the way I'm treating it. Yeah. And I think some of the questions that we have are how aggressive, you know, to me, I want to fund, just like you said, 100%. Yeah. It's funny that people call me and they say, oh, I want to put more just like you said, 100%. Yeah, it's funny that people call me and they say, oh, I want to put more on Baby Step 6, pay off my house faster,

and put less in retirement. And then I get a call like yours where they want to put more in retirement and less on Baby Step 6. Just do the 15%. Run the math out. It'll work. And you can go on a cruise and take your wife on a vacation and do some stuff.

Your Baby Step 4 people is where you are, and you're doing great. You're making a pile of money, and you've got a highly unusual situation here where you've got housing furnished on top of that, and that's a very cool thing. That's a huge benefit package. So you're in really, really good shape, and you're heading in a really positive direction, and I would just go there. So, hey, thanks for joining us open phones at 888-825-5225 joey is with us joey is in colorado hi joey how are you hey dave doing well how are you doing

better than i deserve what's up i want to just thank you for all you've done over the years. I've benefited a lot from your work and wanted to give a quick shout out to everyone watching on YouTube. They encouraged me to make the call. So my question is related to how a small business can prepare for a possible recession. So a little bit of background. I'm the leader of a 40-person small business, and we've just been paying attention to what's happening in the world, how people are freaking out about the coronavirus. I agree with your

assessment of it. I think everyone's overreacting. The news is feeding us fear, but at the same time, it is going to have an impact on the economy. I'm seeing what's going on in Italy. And so we're trying to be preemptive and think ahead how we can prepare for this. A little bit about the company. We don't have any debt. We have six-plus months of emergency fund. We sell digital products, so we're not relying on anything from China. Our client is the multifamily apartment industry. Wonderful.

Our entire team works from home. We offer our team smart dollar because I'm not just concerned about the business, but my team members as well. We're all access members for Entrez leadership. So we're really bought into everything you do. So my question is, how did you prepare for and navigate the 2008 recession so that we can learn from you and follow suit? Thank you.

Very nice question. Well thought out. Exactly what you did. Out of debt and a pile of cash. And I'm looking at my business lines and saying, okay, where are we going to take a hit? Where's revenue going to drop? And do I need to repurpose some people into different things? You have one product line?

No, we have multiple products. We sell like floor plans, virtual tours, and site maps. Do you sell anything direct to consumers or is it all wholesale end of the business, property managers and so forth? Property managers, yeah, that's who we're going after. They use it in their marketing material to attract and engage prospects who might want to rent from their property. Unless they quit doing that, you're not going to have a problem.

Now, you know, what we thought actually, you know, when we look back, and I've talked about this in Entrez Leadership before, we look back on 08, we thought from a business perspective that we were helping people who were struggling with money. And if there was a recession, more people would be struggling with money, so our business would go up. What happened was the opposite of that. Our direct-to-consumer, like Financial Peace University sales, went down. As a matter of fact, it's the only year in our history the sales went down. Every year, Financial Peace University sales have gone up, every single year for almost 30 years. But that year, they went down.

So it turns out that even though people were struggling with money, they didn't want the help from it. They just wanted to be afraid and didn't, you know, they quit buying, and they quit giving to churches and quit doing so forth. So, you know, we went through about a six- or an eight-month downturn in revenue. It was not so severe that we actually didn't make a profit in that area. We still were profitable. We just didn't have the year-over-year growth that we had had before.

So it was more just emotionally painful than actually mathematically painful. But we had enough. Again, we're sitting on a pile of cash like you are, and we had no debt. And so really it's just a matter of how much money I'm going to make, not whether i'm gonna lose money and not whether i'm gonna lose enough money that i end up having to be in a position that i have to let some people go because i can't make payroll and i run out of that cash so that's what you've just got to do is just continually watch the market and so forth so you know um we are full steam ahead here right now with live events we've not

canceled a single one with the ramsey cruise we're not canceling it uh it's actually not up to us to cancel it it's holland america's cruise we're just the marketing arm on it we don't have control of it technically so if they cancel it we won't't go. But otherwise, we're going. And so, but, you know, because two reasons. One is I'm not in control of the decision to cancel it and make refunds to 2,000 people. But the other thing is I think it's ridiculous. I think it's completely overblown. And so I'm shaking hands and hugging necks everywhere I go at every break.

And I wash my hands a little more. And I'm going to live my life. And so it's more of a business philosophy and a personal philosophy, too. Because I think these people have gone completely bananas. It's just nuts. And I may die from it because of it. I don't know. But I'm not going to stop.

Because I don't live in fear. Fear is not a fruit of the spirit. Hey, thanks for the call. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from The Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.